Armenia-Turkey deal delayed over disagreements
FT
ZURICH, Oct 10 – A planned peace agreement between Turkey and Armenia
to end a century of enmity hit a last minute snag on Saturday over
disagreements with statements to be read at the historic ceremony.
US officials sought to help smooth over disagreements with Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian over the statements, while Turkish
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu waited at the venue along with
international dignitaries.
`We’re helping facilitate the two sides come to agreement on statements
that are going to come out,’ US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly
told reporters. `There’s not a breakdown.’
A US official said a new version of the Turkish statement had been
brought to the hotel.
One Reuters witness at the hotel saw the Armenian delegation in a
huddle, having heated discussions. Other Reuters witnesses described
the atmosphere at the hotel as tense.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Russia’s Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov and France’s Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner
were also waiting at the University of Zurich where the ceremony was to
be signed.
The deal to normalise ties and reopen the border has faced fierce
opposition from nationalists on both sides and an Armenian diaspora
which insists Turkey acknowledge the killings of up to 1.5m Armenians
by Ottoman forces in World War
One as genocide.
A decades-old dispute between Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan and Armenia over
the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh had hung over the deal after
talks between Azeri and Armenian leaders over the region ended without
result on Friday.
An accord would boost US ally Turkey’s diplomatic clout in the volatile
South Caucasus, a transit corridor for oil and gas to the West. US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other dignitaries were to attend
the signing.
But disagreements over the Ottoman killings’which Yerevan calls
genocide, a term Ankara rejects’and a decades-old dispute between
Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh hang over
the settlement.
Under US and EU pressure, officials from European Union candidate
Turkey and former Soviet republic Armenia said they would sign the
Swiss-mediated accord, which sets a timetable for restoring diplomatic
ties and opening their border.
It must then be approved by their parliaments in the face of
nationalist opposition and the powerful Armenian diaspora.S